Annual Report 2013

The 2013 Annual Report includes a review of the year, research highlights and activities across the School's three Faculties, and key facts and figures. The financial review provides an overview of the School's finances and activities during 2012-13

Competition, knowledge spillover, and innovation: technological development of semiconductor lasers, 1960- 1990

Knowledge plays an important role in economic growth. The role of technological knowledge significantly increased after the Industrial Revolution. Firms internalised technological knowledge in their R&D laboratories and placed knowledge creation in a central position in their business strategies. Both the stock and flow of technological knowledge and the tight interaction among science and engineering became indispensable to the competitive advantage of industry, as well as modern economic growth. Directing its attention to knowledge creation and spillover, this thesis scrutinises the development of semiconductor lasers from 1960 to 1990. The semiconductor laser became one of the most important developments in the optoelectronics industry underlying the drastic changes that took place during the last half of the twentieth century in information technology, and it has become the most widely used laser since the 1980s. Reviewing the optoelectronics industry in the U.S. and Japan, the Japan Technology Evaluation Center (JTEC) found that “Japan clearly led in consumer optoelectronics, that both countries were competitive in communications and networks, and that the United States held a clear lead in custom optoelectronics.” “Japan’s lead in high-volume consumer optoelectronics and related technologies gave it a dominant share of the overall global optoelectronics market.” This thesis explores how the patterns of comparative advantages emerged, which were indicated by the JTEC report. How did Japanese firms gain technological competitiveness in high volume product markets? How did the U.S. firms come to be competitive in niche markets? Through scrutinizing patent data, it examines the engineers’ network, mobility, and the pattern of technological choice in R&D competition. Introducing the two different types of knowledge--current technological domain specific knowledge and lateral utilization knowledge--it showed how different patterns of knowledge spillover emerged and resulted in the different paths of technological development in the U.S. and Japan. Based on the high star-engineers’ mobility and the well developed research network, the U.S. firms tended to spin off from their parent firms and targeted niche markets. Therefore, knowledge spillover emerged in the areas where semiconductor laser technology was applied and exploited to fill untapped markets. In contrast, the pattern of competition of Japanese firms induced knowledge spillovers to enhance the development of core semiconductor laser technology instead of exploiting niche product markets

Ocean Energy in Belgium - 2019

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The Effectiveness of an Online Credit Recovery Program on Improving the Graduation Rates of Students at Risk of School Failure

Students are dropping out of high school at alarming rates. Reports suggest that between 6,300 and 7,000 high school students drop out daily (Dessoff, 2009; Stanley & Plucker, 2008), and more than 1.3 million students drop out each year (Long-Coleman, 2009; Zehr, 2010). In the United States, nearly one in five individuals has not earned a high school diploma or General Equivalency Degree (GED) (Kaufman, Alt, & Chapman, 2004). Every member of society feels the impact of high school dropouts, given the enormous economic and social costs (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2009). For example, over the course of a lifetime, the average high school dropout earns roughly 260,000 less, compared to a high school graduate (Rouse, 2005). Dropouts are also more likely to be arrested or become pregnant during their teenage years (Sum, McLaughlin, & Khatiwada, 2008). Long-Coleman (2009) estimated that dropouts cost society 325 billion in lost wages, tax revenue, and productivity annually

Education in occupational health psychology: Where have we been, where are we now and where are we going?

At the first full conference of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology (Lund, 1999), the decision was ratified to organise activities around three fora. These together represented the pillars on which the European Academy had been founded that same year: education, research and professional practice. Each forum was convened by a chair person and a small group of full members; it was agreed that a forum meeting would take place at each full conference and working groups would be established to move developments forward between conferences. The forum system has proven an effective means by which to channel the energies of individual members, and the institutions that they represent, towards advancements in all three areas of activity in occupational health psychology (OHP) in Europe. During the meeting of the education forum at the third full European Academy conference (Barcelona, 2001), the proposal was made for the establishment of a working party that would be tasked with the production of a strategy document on The Promotion of Education in Occupational Health Psychology in Europe. The proposal was ratified at the subsequent annual business meeting held during the same conference. The draft outline of the strategy document was published for consultation in the European Academy’s e-newsletter (Vol. 3.1, 2002) and the final document presented to the meeting of the education forum at the fourth full conference (Vienna, 2002). The strategy document constituted a seminal piece of literature in so far as it provided a foundation and structure capable of guiding pan-European developments in education in OHP – developments that would ensure the sustained growth of the discipline and assure it of a long-standing embedded place in both the scholarly and professional domains. To these ends, the strategy document presented six objectives as important for the sustained expansion and the promotion of education in the discipline in Europe. Namely, the development of: [1] A core syllabus for education in occupational health psychology [2] A mechanism for identifying, recognising and listing undergraduate and postgraduate modules and courses (programmes) in occupational health psychology [3] Structures to support the extension of the current provision of education in occupational health psychology [4] Ways of enhancing convergence of the current provision of education in occupational health psychology [5] Ways of encouraging regional cooperation between education providers across the regions of Europe [6] Ways of ensuring consistency with North American developments in education and promoting world wide co-operation in education Five years has elapsed since the presentation of these laudable objectives to the meeting of the education forum in Vienna in December 2002. In that time OHP has undergone considerable growth, particularly in Europe and North America. Expansion has been reflected in the evolution of existing, and emergence of new, representative bodies for the discipline on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. As such, it might be considered timely to pause to reflect on what has been achieved in respect of each of the objectives set out in the strategy document. The current chapter examines progress on the six objectives and considers what remains to be done. This exercise is entered into not merely in order to congratulate achievements in some areas and lament slow progress in others. Rather, on the one hand it serves to highlight areas where real progress has been made with a view to the presentation of these areas as ripe for further capitalisation. On the other hand it serves to direct the attention of stakeholders (all those with a vested interest in OHP) to those key parts of the jigsaw puzzle that is the development of a self-sustaining pan-European education framework which remain to be satisfactorily addressed

EU–originated MOOCs, with focus on multi- and single-institution platforms

No abstract available

TechNews digests: Jan - Mar 2010

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month